Background—More strokes were observed in the Trial to Reduce Cardiovascular Events With Aranesp Therapy (TREAT) among patients assigned to darbepoetin alfa. We sought to identify baseline characteristics and postrandomization factors that might explain this association. Methods and Results—A multivariate logistic regression model was used to identify baseline predictors of stroke in 4038 patien...

We here identify a protein (AlfA; actin like filament) that defines a new family of actins that are only distantly related to MreB and ParM. AlfA is required for segregation of Bacillus subtilis plasmid pBET131 (a mini pLS32-derivative) during growth and sporulation. A 3-kb DNA fragment encoding alfA and a downstream gene (alfB) is necessary and sufficient for plasmid stability. AlfA-GFP assemb...

BACKGROUND Anemia in patients with cancer causes fatigue, weakness, and impaired concentration, negatively impacting quality of life (QOL). In clinical trials involving patients with cancer who had varied characteristics, it has been shown that epoetin alfa treatment increased hemoglobin levels and improved QOL. A systematic review and metaanalysis of data from those trials was conducted to sum...

BACKGROUND The different efficacy of subcutaneous and intravenous rHuEPO results in higher doses and costs in intravenously treated patients. Darbepoetin alfa has a different pharmacokinetic profile compared to rHuEPO, and previous clinical experience suggests that subcutaneous and intravenous darbepoetin alfa may have similar efficacy. Objective. The aim of this study was to compare the effica...

The addition of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) protease inhibitors telaprevir and boceprevir to peginterferon alfa with ribavirin therapy has increased cure rates in HCV infection. Numerous other direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) are in advanced stages of development, including next-generation protease inhibitors, nonstructural protein (NS) 5A inhibitors, and nonnucleoside and nucleos(t)ide NS5B pol...

Production of interferon alfa in vitro was significantly reduced during acute respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis but subsequently returned to normal. Nasopharyngeal and endotracheal interferon alfa were detected intermittently and in low concentrations. The degree of impairment of in vitro production and poor in vivo production of interferon alfa suggest the need for a therapeutic trial ...

Abstract. The present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of EMAVAIL (epoetin alfa) in correction anemia hemodialysis patients.
 Methods. A total 36 patients undergoing regular were enrolled this prospective study. Among 19 (53%) men 17 (47%) women with severe (hemoglobin (Hb) level ≤ 90 g/L). mean patients' age was 48.41±1.82 years, an average dialysis vintage consisted 42.38±...

OBJECTIVES To compare the efficacy and safety of poractant alfa and bovine lipid extract surfactant in preterm infants. STUDY DESIGN Randomized, partially-blinded, multicenter trial. Infants <32 weeks needing surfactant before 48 hours were randomly assigned to receive poractant alfa or bovine lipid extract surfactant. The primary outcome was being alive and extubated at 48 hours post-randomi...

BACKGROUND Current treatments for chronic hepatitis B are suboptimal. In the search for improved therapies, we compared the efficacy and safety of pegylated interferon alfa plus lamivudine, pegylated interferon alfa without lamivudine, and lamivudine alone for the treatment of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive chronic hepatitis B. METHODS A total of 814 patients with HBeAg-positive chron...

Background: Darbepoetin alfa is an erythopoietic agent with a 3-fold longer elimination half-life than recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO), which allows less frequent dosing, and hence it maintains an effective hemoglobin control at extended dose intervals compared with rHuEPO. This study assessed the efficacy and safety of unit doses of darbepoetin alfa for the treatment of renal anemia ...